Charlie McGettigan - A Profile.

Charlie McGettigan started his musical career in the 1960’s heavily influenced by artists like the Beatles, The Rolling Stones and all the high profile names of that period. He played everything from ballrooms to the then emerging pub scene so that he could gain experience at all levels of the entertainment industry but when he moved to Dublin in 1968 he honed in on the thriving folk scene there at that time. His influences then were people like Paul Brady, Donal Lunny and Andy Irvine and, having played electric guitar up to then, he purchased his first acoustic guitar concentrating on developing the finger picking style, which is now his stock in trade.

Moving to the rural environment of Drumshanbo, Co. Leitrim in 1973, Charlie formed the highly successful “Jargon” group, which went on to win the prestigious “Letterkenny Folk Festival” following in the footsteps of bands like Clannad and Pumpkinhead. This win led to a recording contract with Polygram records and the release of Jargon’s first single “ Bailieboro and me”. The band went on to record two more singles and then Charlie went on to pursue a solo career.

During the following years Charlie worked with artists like Maura O Connell and Eleanor Shanley who both recorded many of Charlie’s songs including “I don’t know how you do it” “ Feet of a dancer”, “A bed for the night”, “If anything happened to you” and others. He released two solo albums - “Songs of the night” and “Charlie McGettigan” - before joining forces with Paul Harrington and Brendan Graham to win the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest with “Rock n Roll Kids”. He recorded “Rock n Roll kids -Album” with Paul Harrington but the duo went their separate ways shortly after it’s release.

Charlie has since pursued a solo career releasing the albums , “In your old room” and “ Family Matters”. He tours extensively both here and abroad and his songs have been recorded by many other artists including De Dannan, Mary and Frances Black, Ray Lynam, Daniel O Donnell, Hal Ketchum, Maura O Connell and Eleanor Shanley to name but a few.

These days Charlie tours regularly both here and abroad. Down the years he has made many TV appearances both here and abroad and has presented his own TV and radio specials for RTE and the BBC.

In November 2005 Charlie travelled to Nashville Tennessee to work with the legendary producer Bil Vorndick recording 14 tracks for a new album, which will be released in March 2006. Bil has been nominated for no less than 42 Grammy Awards and has worked with artists as diverse as Bob Dylan, Marty Robbins, James Taylor and Alison Krauss.

Top acoustic musicians, Randy Kohrs ( Dobro) Aubrie Hainie (Fiddle/Mandolin), Mark Fain (Bass) Pete Huttlinger (Guitars), Sam Levine(Clarinet), Pat McInerney (Drums/ Percussion), Patti Mitchell(Vocals and Chip Davis
(Vocals) participated in the recordings over a four-day live session. The album contains new songs by Charlie and some written in collaboration with other writers.

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